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Of the approximately 200,000 Huguenots whose consciences compelled them to leave France during the 17th and 18th centuries, some 10,000 chose to settle in the most unlikely refuge of Ireland. The story of why and how these most ardent of Protestant believers found themselves in this most fervently Catholic of islands is explored in this book. It also attempts to reveal precisely who these Huguenots were, what they contributed to and received from their adopted land, and why Huguenot ancestry is so respected and prized even among devout Irish Catholics. The true chronicle of Ireland’s Huguenots is, in opposition to the narrow misrepresentations of the past, one of extraordinary richness and variety, as befits an ethnic group whose influence permeated into every nook of Irish life and society.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Hylton offers new insights into Ireland’s Huguenot settlements, providing in many cases new data on Irish Huguenot families and their function within Irish society.” —Eighteenth-Century Ireland journal

“Hylton highlights the key issues that hindered the development of a cohesive Huguenot community in Ireland…. He renders a valuable service by situating Ireland’s Huguenot refugees within a wider context. The text elegantly summarizes the period in Huguenot history before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and traces how conflicts between politique and zealot Huguenots had far-reaching consequences for the refugees in Ireland…. He also provides helpful miniature biographies of many of the key ecclesiastical and political actors within the French community and those within the Irish establishment who rendered them aid. Hylton’s care in recounting these incidents along with his detailing of the Huguenot role in the Protestant ascendancy in Ireland ensure that both specialist and nonspecialist readers can glean important insight from the text. Hylton’s work also demonstrates that genealogical interests can coexist with the concerns of professional historians.” —Journal of British Studies

“Hylton’s study has two distinct merits. First, he has combed through archival sources, identifying individuals, tracing their trades, social status, and family affiliations, and attempting to assess their contribution to Irish social and economic history. Second, he correctly argues that the three successive waves of Huguenot immigration into Ireland were distinct. The incentives offered in 1662 by the ‘act for encouraging protestant-strangers and others, to inhabit and plant in the kingdom of Ireland’ attracted some two hundred French Protestants to Ireland; but they, like the Flemish weavers who also came at this time, were economic migrants rather than refugees… Hylton deserves credit for debunking many of the myths that surround the Huguenot presence in Ireland.” —International History Review

“The Huguenot communities in Ireland have long attracted interest. In particular, three investigators—Grace Lawless Lee, Albert Carré and T. P. Le Fanu—laid sturdy foundations of evidence and interpretation. Raymond Hylton’s study, while generous in its acknowledgement of the pioneers, goes far beyond them. So far as the sources are concerned, it is unlikely that much will come to light to modify his authoritative account of the successive stages of the settlements in Ireland. Possibly the archives of particular families of Huguenot origin will yield new information. Dr. Hylton’s account, originating in a doctoral dissertation, will now achieve the wider circulation that it deserves. The author shows an impressive mastery of the detail and the contexts in his painstaking treatment. . . . This is the fullest and most judicious account of the refuge in Ireland.” —Proceedings of the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland journal

About the Author

Raymond Pierre Hylton is Associate Professor of History at Virginia Union University, Richmond, Virginia. He has lectured and studied at University College, Dublin, and is the recipient winner of the National Huguenot Society Publishing Award for 1987.